Sandberg Promoted to Phillies Third Base Coach

The Phillies announced today that they’ve promoted Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs manager Ryne Sandberg to third base coach and infield instructor. This comes after the firings of Sam Perlozzo, Pete Mackanin, and Greg Gross on Wednesday.

Other moves with the coaching staff were also made. Steve Henderson was promoted from AAA to be the new hitting coach for the Phillies and Rod Nichols is now in charge of the bullpen.

Rich Dubee will be retained as pitching coach, while Mick Billmeyer has been promoted to catching coach. Not sure how that is a promotion or what that changes for Billmeyer, but we’ll find out.

That leaves Juan Samuel, who was offered the position of first base coach and outfield/baserunning instructor. It appears he has not made up his mind on whether to stay with the Phillies in that capacity. The Phillies will not employ a bench coach.

Obviously, the big news is that the Hall of Famer Sandberg finally gets his shot at coaching in the big leagues. This is looking like the Charlie Manuel farewell tour as many of the faces you’ve come to know are gone.

The thought is that Sandberg could be the next Phillies manager after Manuel’s contract expires following the 2013 season. Is that the right move? Our own Eric Seidman addressed that situation.

Clearly, the Phillies were unhappy with being stagnant. Ruben Amaro and co. changed the direction of the organization with one fell swoop. We’re beginning to see the changing of the guard, with Sandberg at the forefront.

I don’t think there’s much need for a bench coach. He’s got all those other coaches to “bounce ideas” off of so what’s the point? I think Sandberg will be more of a 3rd base coach anyway. Especially if he’s the “manager in waiting.”

sandberg at 3rd base. huh, hall of famer , one of the best hitting second baseman ever. and yet steve henderson( who ?), is the hitting coach. and we have no bench coach, charlie still cant make the double switch. much to do about nothing.

Sandberg needs to replace Charlie Manual NOW because the Phillies’ talent needs to be managed, not “buddied”. Charlie blows more games than most managers in baseball. He overmanages his pitchers and under manages game situations. How many one run games are we going to continue to lose because we look for the long ball, instead of moving runners, playing hit and run, bunting, etc.?? In addition, when will somebody whose a hitting coach teach Howard how to take a curve ball to the left side. With the shift on Howard, he could bunt for a double…. He can’t hit a curve from the leftys, if he did he’d raise his batting average 40 points, add 25 more ribbies, and 10 more home runs because they would have to pitch to him. If I were manager, Howard would be in the cage for hours in the off season.

This is kinda weird. Accuracy assumed, anyway. Hardball Talk picked up a Salisbury quote saying the club is looking to add either Matt Stairs or Mike Sweeny as an assistant hitting coach to work with Steve Henderson. Thome’s name is also mentioned, but skip the uniqueness of an assistant hitting coach, it’s weird they’d reveal the candidates. If you’re gonna list those 3, I’ll give you another possible outside candidate, Raul. Say what you want about his extended slump tendencies, but the man in theory is a professional hitter, and the hitting coach would be theory. It might wind up a poor idea, ut I give this not often forward thinking organization, at least historically credit for creativity.

I never really got excited about a hitting coach, especially on a veteran team. A couple of years ago Rudy Jaramillo was the hot name as far as hitting coaches and he didn’t really work any magic when he went from Texas to Chicago.

So Ryno is the assumed 3rd base coach for 2012, and it’s not surprising that he’s still free to pursue management positions. Not a bad gig to fall back on if he does wind up sticking as the ’13 3rd base coach. And while I didn’t think he’d land a skipper’s position, it’s not like anything imminent has opened. Hell, the only thing imminent for him woulda been the Cub job. But this Jim Tracy departure in Denver might seem like a possibility to at least get an interview. Jason Giambi, through a source said he’d retire if he got the job. For all I know, beneath the nonsense about the roids and stuff, the Giambino might be a good candidate. But if he does merit consideration, and that is a huge if off what may have been a planting of his name for unrealistic purposes, you have to think Ryno would compare pretty favorably to at least get an interview.